


If P, Then Q

by zhennie



Category: Iron Man (Movies), The Avengers (2012)
Genre: Angst, Drabble, F/M, Post-Movie(s)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-07-09
Updated: 2012-07-09
Packaged: 2017-11-09 13:01:45
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 473
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/455741
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/zhennie/pseuds/zhennie
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Tony Stark is Iron Man, Pepper realizes, but Iron Man is not Tony Stark.</p>
            </blockquote>





	If P, Then Q

The thing is, Pepper thinks wryly, is that Tony Stark is Iron Man. 

In a way, this was always true, even before he thought the suit up. Under that shiny gold exterior of 'I am Tony Stark and everyone else can shove it up their ass', Tony was a good man, solid, iron. It's part of the reason she fell in love with him, after all. Tony Stark was Iron Man, but Iron Man was not Tony Stark. That was a paradoxical statement if Pepper ever saw one, but she couldn't help but think it, thousands of miles in the air, watching CNN and feeling like the plane wasn't there at all and she was falling from the sky, because Iron Man was New York's, yes, but Tony Stark was _hers_. 

It's Tony who greets her in New York, when the plane finally lands. Tony, with his worn shirt and old jeans, sharp eyes and sharper mind. His armor is ruined, more or less, and Pepper doesn't want to look at it, battered and worn. But she does anyways, to catalogue the damage, like she will do to Tony later, cataloguing his bruises and scars. And then the tears slip out of her eyes, sudden and secretive, so Pepper didn't know she was crying until Tony went from holding her hands in his to wrapping his arms around, her, rubbing his calloused hands up and down her back, murmuring comfortingly. 

"I'm sorry," he said, "I'm sorry, I'm sorry." 

You don't know what you're apologizing for, Pepper wants to say, but she knows that isn't true. He's apologizing for scaring her. He's apologizing that she had to watch that, and that she had gotten off the plane to one missed call. But he's also apologizing for being Tony Stark, and thus, Iron Man, with all the duties that entails. Because Tony Stark is Iron Man, but Iron Man is not Tony Stark. The suit is nothing without the man in it, and she knows this. And she can't deny him this. And she knows that it is in everyone's interests.

So Pepper pulls back, pressing the heels of her hands to her eyes before Tony pulls them away and wipes away her tears himself, and she takes a shaky breath. 

"You're all I have," she tells him again. Later, they'll talk about Loki and Coulson and outer space and destroying to rebuild better. He'll introduce Pepper to Bruce, who is the Hulk. But like Tony, the Hulk is not Bruce. (Even later on, she'll realize that this is a true statement for all the Avengers, this paradoxical asymmetry, and decide she likes the people behind the superheroes.) Later, she'll confess her fears to him while they lie in bed in a half-ruined skyscraper. 

For now, Tony's lips press to hers, and she holds on.


End file.
